Well I do agree (obviously) that lucid dreams are real, but I also understand some people’s skepticism. There is – and I hate to say it here, so please be kind – a lot of bunk out there concerning dreams. You’re not very likely to find a book about this LDing in the science section of a book store, for instance…not as likely as you are to find it in the new age section, that is. Dreams just seem to be that sort of a topic. I think they are fascinating, myself, and there is definitely a lot we don’t understand about them. But that being said, lucid dreaming has been proven to be a real phenomenon, not just by lots of people who do it, but sleep scientists who examine it under careful, controlled circumstances. The same can’t be said for, say, precognitive dreams. So I do care if such things are real, because I want to make sure that if I have an investment in something like this, that I’m not just fooling myself.
Let me put it another way: I myself care about the authenticity of these things for very pragmatic reasons, and here’s an example…not exactly dream related, but here it goes. Let’s say I visit a psychic because I need to speak with a dead loved one. Maybe this person really can speak with the dead, and maybe not. In any case, let’s say this person relays some kind of message for me, and it makes me feel better about my loved one, whoever it is. If this person really could do what they claimed, that would be fantastic, and I’d feel pretty good…but if they were just fooling themselves into thinking they have this power, or worse yet, were actually knowingly passing off simple magic tricks as psychic powers, wouldn’t you feel a little cheated if you were to find out that they weren’t all they claimed they were, and that what you thought was a real message from a loved one was, in actuality, a mistake or a lie? I sure would, because my experience with this psychic (although it might have gave me a result that I might want) wasn’t actually authentic. That’s just one example, and I’ll spare everyone another one lest I seem like a big skeptical party pooper 
As everyone can probably tell, I’m not this sort of person. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, a little healthy skepticism is a good thing. Now, lucid dreams weren’t really something I was ever that skeptical about because the idea isn’t really that far fetched, and such dreams have been reported since at least Aristotle’s time. And I think there are probably a lot of others like me…certainly, the scientists who proved lucid dreaming was real were skeptical, even though they also believed it was possible; when you’re a scientist, skepticism comes with the job.
I agree, up to a point. Maybe this part of my post belongs in the Cloud…but you can have real experiences (really, all experiences are real, as long as there really is an agent experiencing them), but not all experiences are of real things. I think lucid dreams really are experiences, but others might be a little less keen on thinking of dreams as experiences. But I agree Wyvern, experiences do matter. It’s good to have a good idea of what it is you’re experiencing too, I think 
)
But I do say that people do NOT and I say DO NOT need to be religious to believe in LDing considering that our dreams are hallucinations almost, and hallucinations occur to anyone, including atheists. And our dreams are made of phosphenes, which turn into hallucinations/ dreams during REM. Dreaming is like, scientifically proven, so what’s wrong with just being simply aware in a dream?
